Gunmen using silenced weapons attacked at least six checkpoints in Baghdad today, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and policemen, while bombs planted at three others wounded several more, an Interior Ministry source said.

Gunmen using silenced weapons attacked at least six checkpoints in Baghdad on Monday, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and policemen, while bombs planted at three others wounded several more, an Interior Ministry source said.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the attacks showed a new tactic was being used by suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents. All the checkpoints were attacked around the same time, at dawn.

"This was a message to us that they can attack us in different parts of the city at the same time because they have cells everywhere," he said.